A legend reborn as Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny returns! Developed by Austrian developer Crafty Studios, Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny is a faithful remake of the 1992 original, adored by a generation of Role Players and one of the most successful RPG’s of the 1990’s.

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A legend reborn as Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny returns!

Developed by Austrian developer Crafty Studios, Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny is a faithful remake of the 1992 original, adored by a generation of Role Players and one of the most successful RPG’s of the 1990’s.

Get ready to return to Thorwal, one of the oldest cities of Aventuria. Make sure your wits are sharpened before walking down the small alleys of Thorwal and Prem, and prepare to stop the Orcisch threat while creating a mighty alliance between nations. Featuring a complete visual reimagining along with a comprehensive overhaul of every aspect of the gameplay, Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny is set to captivate a 21st century audience of new and old fans alike.

So, right to the point.Yes, I do recommend Realms of Arkania, but with a number of caveats.

Realms of Arkania is definitely "budget," definitely indie, and most definitely rough around the edges in places. RoA still has a couple of UI glitches, and isn't always pretty to look at. The English voice acting is atrocious.

However, the game-stopping bugs present at launch have been fixed. The visuals are adequate; not great, but not terrible. The voice acting, luckily, can be disabled.

As for gameplay, RoA is almost more of a management sim than a typical RPG. I actually appreciate that. The preparation you have to put into traveling during the winter months is possibly more important than how well-equipped your party is for combat. You just don't see certain kinds of brutal gameplay concepts (exposure, thirst & starvation, exhaustion, sickness & disease) in these kinds of games anymore. Unless you play smart, your adventure can easily end during the first winter, with your frostbitten party starving to death on a mountain trail.

How many fantasy RPGs have you played lately in which a winter coat is more important to your survival than a +3 sword?

Now, I didn't buy RoA at release. In fact, I didn't begin playing it until after the final major patch was out. So I didn't experience how badly broken it was at release. My only experience of RoA is with the game in its current state.

So, how is it currently? As far as I can tell, RoA is feature-complete compared to the original Realms of Arkania game from the '90s. Every quest present and working in the original is present and working in this remake. In fact, the devs have added new bits of content to the game (quests, encounters, etc), so the game now has MORE content than the original.

Again, RoA isn't the prettiest game to look at. But the gameplay itself is just what I was looking for when I bought it - unforgiving, difficult, oldschool, and based in the Dark Eye universe.

At over 100 hours ingame, and having finished the main questline and nearly all side quests, I can honestly say that I got my money's worth out of Realms of Arkania. Your mileage may vary, however, depending on how tolerant you are of outdated graphics, general lack of polish, and brutally unforgiving gameplay straight out of 1992.

I'm a fair way in to this game and totally loving it. I love the old School feel, I love the story, I love that its got so much lore to it. The opening city is truly huge, with shops and tavens. Ive made a name for myself playing the flute! I like the voice discriptions, it feels like a real Pen and Paper experience, reminds me of the Dungeons and Dragons Online in that it is narrated. Ive been looking for a game like that for a long time! At times it reminds me of Eye of the beholder (in the dungeon crawling) and other times like heroes of might and magic (in the combat). I tried the orginal from GOG, and enjoyed it but have found this, with its updated graphics and narrated discriptions better. I would recommend this to anyone who likes deep roleplaying. Give it a few hours and let it grow on you. I'm really glad i took a punt!

Probably ought to note there is no tutorial, and its pretty hard core and plays best on my rig in windowed mode.

I'm not gonna talk about Realms of Arkania as a game. People who don't know the original ROA should read about it somewhere. I'm just gonna say this: its a WRPG where you have to THINK. Its a REAL RPG, where your skills are as much important inside battles AND outside. But I'm here to talk about this reboot only, assuming everyone here knows ROA.

First of all, this game was released in a very incomplete state when it came to STEAM. Almost unplayable, actually. The guys patched it intensivelly after that, but at that point, the game got some of the worst reviews ever (compared to Big Rigs!!). The thing is: after all the patching, the game became QUITE playable... and very fun to play. But people didn't gave it a chance.

Just like the original ROA, your party has TONS of skills that are used in battles and on the field. This is what I always liked about ROA, and its all here. Just like in the original ROA, you have to take real good care of your chars. They will get sick if you are in a cold place without clothes for winter, for example. And just like in the original ROA, this is the most fun part of this game: surviving while exploring the world.

The battles in here are the weakest part though. Then again, they were not much different in the original ROA... Keep in mind that this game is NOT forgiving in the beginning. You will die. A LOT. You will miss most attacks, you will be frustrated. It was like this in ROA, and its exactly the same in ROA HD. After a while, you'll get better, and will be able to DESTROY your enemies. This version has some bad looking character models though. It seems they are just placeholders, but never replaced with real models. Your characters look awful, your enemies look awful too... The backgrounds are ok. The originals had horrible looking battle backgrounds, and they are also bad here. But are at least more detailed, and since they are in 3D, you can rotate the camera at will.

Outside battles the game look quite good; impressive for a low budget game, actually. Even though this is an indie game, the backgrounds are VERY detailed, and beautiful to look at. Specially the dungeons: they are very good looking, and varied. And since the game is in 3D, you won't move in a grid based system, like in ROA 1 and 2. You can move freely, rotate the camera at will, look up and down. Kinda like ROA3, but with a WAY more beautiful world.

At the end of the day, this is still a VERY rough release. It has some bugs and some bad looking models. But its FUN. One of the most fun RPGs I've ever played. You need patience though. This isn't a game for newbie's. If you didn't like the original ROA, you will NOT like this one. ROA HD is just ROA, but with 3D graphics.

Even if this game has issues, I recommend it for fans of the original ROA. Give this game a chance. Exploring the game world is fun now. You won't see that basic tile-based cities that all look the same anymore. You'll see a world in 3D, with detailed residences, rivers and real people walking around (the 3 ROA games didn't even had NPCs visible in the game world!!). You will learn to care for that characters, because if you don't they WILL die on you. And you will be able to do optional quests to get money and experience, or can just run around the world aimlesly for as much as you want (if you can survive, that is).

This is a great game. With more polish, it would be perfect. It's fun the way it is though, and this is what's most important in a game.

NOTE: For 1.34(More Then A Remake) a short addition appended below this review. 1.33 review(To Cross the Borders) appended below this review. (Delaying the Ork Invasion is 1.32 review)

*****Delaying the Ork Invasion*****

Why I chose this title? Because at the release of this game, we all were leaning towards the thoughts that the game was doomed and orks would conquer the Northlands without our intervention. The game was a mess of bugs and a graphical parody to a degree where NPCs and surroundings would make you feel like in a zombie apocalypse version of Northlands. And furthermore the game used to lack many spells, mechanics and had several other gamebreakers which is probably the reason turned off many people. But...there is always a "but"...and this time it is a good "but".

The game evolved...while I am telling you its evolved it is in the level of a pokemon evolution where you would barely recognize what it was before. Crafty Studios perhaps hired a faery who touched the game with her magical wand exorcising a nasty demon who made the game look bad and broken. Or briefly, they worked their asses off during these months releasing several patches to reach this state. But before going into detail...some screenshots from my game:

If you have the game, you will notice the major differences...if you don't have the game well you should get it while it is still on Christmas Sales, because the great leap forward which has started with 1.32 patch which is named as "Revised" will not stop till "Gold" version of the game. I presume you already looked at the screenshots. Here I will not go over change by change but mention the crucial changes which made me rather happy.

The Journey Map is in English and place names are in accordance with the original Blade of Destiny. Of course still there are no descriptions for Hjaldor Mountains and such, that is just a matter of adding a few place holders.

NPCs look good and NPCs with striped pants you can feel like you are really traversing Thorwalian towns. Also market days, opening/closing times of the shops as well as if you get caught cheating at a tavern you get punished by no entrance features integrated to the game over this time.

The new UI which provides more information to the people in a coherent way, as well as they are more versatile then the old UI which was closing a part of the main screen. Now you have a broader area of view where you can enjoy the good sights of the game.

Except Demon Summoning spells(which are not added) and a few more, most of the spells are fully functioning and ready to assist you in a dungeon as utility or perhaps to decimate your foes as fast as possible. After all, we could wait a little while longer to see a few stray/unimplemented spells.

I'm not even mentioning several optical improvements done to the environment letting screenshots talk for themselves. Though, one thing worth mentioning is the improved interiors of the buildings...especially my favourite is the inn which gave me a dark feeling and I could say I was definitely in backwater, gloomy Northlands of Aventuria.

There are also a good deal of fine tunings, bugfixes and balancings...but I'll cut to the chase. This game evolved truly and deserves a second chance. You will not regret it, especially when you buy it now at a bargain price.

Edit: Price advice was during Christmas Sale, but rest of the review is still valid since it features 1.32 patch. I will update the review, after every noticeable change.

*****To Cross the Borders*****

The anticipated 1.33 patch hit the Steam and I should say while there are still shortcomings here and there, it has been a solid improvement.

Though sadly we still have to be exposed to unpolished Battle Avatars and Sounds. This can be a major deterrent to some players. But for me it is a moment of "Eh..." since I have been more interested in content of the battles rather then nice looks. But I must point out, now spells are associated with different animations, that can be a good indication for the future polishing(One can keep hoping).

Now, one major striking point is that every temple has a different interior as well as the temple distribution on Hjaldings is accurate to the world description. So you'll find a good deal of Swafnir and Travia temples while there are no Praios or Boron temples.

About battle, there are now Battle Stances! Yes, they have finally found their way into the game. Aggressive, Balanced and Defensive. Depending on your tactical situation, now you can make use of those stances. For example, if you flanked somebody, this especially alleviates the issue where hitting is a problem. Going aggressive will increase your hit chance while reducing your parry chance, providing you more success. On the other hand, a hard pressed character can switch to defensive to hold off the enemy. Another plus is that now Necrophobia is important in battles. It'll make your characters skip a turn if undead is in the vicinity. (Necrophobia roll) Also weapon/monster re-balancing seems like it will make things quite different then before. One example is some animals are hitting twice. Also two spells Nekropathia and Abvenenum added to the game. The more, the merrier.

Heavy bugfixing as usual made the game stabler and Main Game+DLCs present a good deal of content. "For the Gods" add a number of challenging unique battles across 2 detailed dungeons and one town while "Ogredeath" adds several side quests spread through the world and one extra dungeon at Groenvelden.

Now, I should stress it again. If Battle Characters, Animations and Sounds can get an overhaul via a major patch, this game has the potential to be a true success. The game has already crossed the border of remake and now it should move forward with full force.

*****More Then A Remake*****

I wasn't expecting to update my review but surprisingly 1.34 patch hit Steam containing several additional encounters, bugfixes and fine-tunings to mechanics. Additionally some of the good mods (such as herb pouch) created by the dedicated community members of the game made formal appearance with this patch. The game still has the mediocre character models, but aside that in my eyes it has become more then a remake already.

After a real bad release this game had one of the strongest comebacks thanks to all the hardwork the developers put into trying to sort out their mistakes at release time.The game is worth the money and you are going to enjoy it .

I've never before seen a developer work so hard into making a poor product shine. That alone makes this title worthy of picking up.

I have been playing pen and paper RPGs for over 30 years and computer RPGs since the late 80s, so I suppose I am more forgiving on graphics quality than some. What I fiend for in games are interesting combat systems and diverse skills. So far, this title doesn't disappoint.

I feel that watching my fledgling characters grow as the adventure progresses will be quite gratifying in this title. I can't wait to get into some serious questing.

One thing I still can't stand in this game is the English language voice acting. They need some serious help in the voiceover depatment. Monotonous doesn't even begin to describe the voice work, though it may be an ESL issue.

Regardless, this is a small quibble about a product that has been considerably improved over the last few weeks. I am excited to see what other new features and improvements are introduced in the weeks and months to come.

1/8/14 -Please note: The review below was based on impressions on release and subsequent patches in the two months that followed and is not based on the current version of the game.

I intend to add updated impressions when am I able to find the time to give this game another go. I am leaving the initial impressions up because I believe it's important to note that the game was intentionally released and sold as a finished product, and not marked as Early Access, when it was in actuality in horribly unfinished and unplayable condition.

I believe this speaks to the character of both the developer and the publisher and is worth noting.

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Run. Run far away. Now.

I hesitate to even write this because it's categorized as a recommendation and this is the farthest thing from that. (*edit: Valve changed this as of 11/25/13 recommendations are now "reviews" and you can thumbs up or down)

In all my years of gaming and all the games I've played I can say that this is the absolute worst launch of a game I've ever experienced. An abysmal festering trainwreck that grants more entertainment value from reading angry posts in the forum than it does from the actual game.

It looks like crap, plays like ♥♥♥ and has more bugs than a Louisiana swamp. To call it a beta would be dishonest, that it's being sold as a finished product is really fraud. I'd say pre-alpha is the most accurate way to describe the state of this game.

If all of that doesn't scare you off then please at very least go browse the community forums first before you go to buy this game and see what the general consensus is about the state of the game by owners. I won't even say players because hardly anyone can even play it for any significant length of time.

They are issuing patches literally on a daily basis currently but it still has a long way to go and I don't have the most faith in these developers to ultimately end up with a good product at some point down the road.

This game is a textbook example of why none of us should be pre-ordering or buying released games without first checking to see what the general community consensus is. It's extremely obvious that no one at Valve even booted up the game to play for 10 seconds and the developers admit it was released unfinished. Yet here it still sits in the store being sold as a finished product.

It has has now been almost a year after release, and I uninstalled it for the second time... Got the game again for 10 bucks on steam, which is a WAY more fair price than the ridiculous 30 Euros for that release disaster I returned in anger...However, I have to strongly disagree with the decent-to-good ratings that have started to come in. I agree, version 1.32 was a quantum leap when compared to the fraudulent, apocalyptic trainwreck they released. But that just means it has improved to be a below-average game as compared to horrible, unfinished and dysfunctional theft. As of version 1.33 there are few to no game breaking bugs left, but all the glitches still annoy.The game today is *still* a clunky, uninspired and cheap remake, full of little bugs and glitches, with an incredibly clunky interface and very low on fun. There are still not all functions of the 20 year-old original implemented or working as supposed to, in combat enemies still occassionaly bug out, balance and AI is terrible, you can't close some interface screens and I have to click 3 times after saving a game to close *every* open interface window.Graphics are improved but still very mediocre, NPCs now look "halfway OK" instead of "ridiculously awful" (combat avatars of your party are still 100% godawful bug-ugly, though) and performance has improved from terrible to unimpressive...Extrapolating from 1.00, the game might start to be fun and enjoyable around version 1.50. But as all updates sem to have stopped, I've given up the wait. Avoid.

Realms of Arkania was an abomination at launch - it shouldn't have been released because it was not fit to release. The developer claims they have been fixing and patching the game, but the devs have also been outrigth banning content they feel "doesn't represent" the current state of the game. This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and Crafty Studios should be ashamed of themselves. Don't buy this game because the developer thought an unfinished, buggy game was worth taking your money for, and because the devs seems to be into banning criticism and hiding the flaws they left in their full retail game. This was never an Early Access game and it should've been. Just read the comments on this review to understand how childish and awful the devs are and don't support them.Here are the images that the developer got BANNED from my account because they are giant babies: http://i.imgur.com/hyLs5vU.png

Although I cannot recommend this game in its current state, the devs have stated that they will release a "Gold" edition, that is what this game should have been. If you are a fan of oldschool RPGs with lots of flavor text, skills, quests, items, spells, and plot buy that when it comes out.

As it is though, it was released a few months ago as completed when it actually appeared to be an early access alpha, couldnt even be called beta.

I bought it on release, and it was so buggy I literally couldnt get past the character creation screen, or even into it for that matter. Had the devs released it as early access they would have had a horde of loyal followers. But what they released as a complete game looked worse than some small game-builds Ive seen people make for quarter-long class projects. This, obviously, torked off a lot of people, myself included.

The translation leaves a bit to be desired as well. For instance when you light a torch/lantern, the game asks you "What do you want to inflame?" For those of you that are not native English speakers, inflame has two meanings, neither of which has to do with lighting an actual fire. The most common use means "To cause strong emotions in, esp anger or lust." The other means "an infected or red and swollen wound/part of the body injured due to sickness or damage.". Needless to say the sentence cracks me up every time I try to set something on fire. As in "What would you like to make really lustful?" or "What wounds would you like to infect?"

So why am I recommending it? In short, when it works right, its *awesome*.

That and the head dev is very active on the forums, has apologized for the game repeatedly, and has made great strides in making it functional. You can play it now. There are still bugs, but they are relatively minor although annoying.

It has ok graphics, that are slowly getting better, and a decent automap. I tried to play the original from the 90s while waiting for this one to be playable. It didnt have an automap. I dont have the time to map anymore, like I did as a teenager, so thats a great improvement. The music is perfect for the setting, and really puts you in the appropriate mood. Town music is cheerful, and puts you in the mind of wandering through a small green village with exposed-woood and thatch roofs. Dungeon music is nicely dark and spooky, with weird ambient effects. Only really bad thing about non-combat sound is the ♥♥♥♥ing *awful* narrarator. He narrates *everything*. And its *terrible*. Fortunately, it can be turned off. The sound effects in battle are typical grunts, "Oof"s, "EEeee"s, slashes, spell zaps and so on. Nothing special.

The combat is action-point turn based (Fallout 1/2 style), but there is decent room for strategy with the large selection of spells, movement, combat options and so forth.

As far as content, theres a lot. You can camp, hunt, look for herbs, set watches and get attacked. In town you can talk to shopkeepers, drink, gamble, pick pocets (Although you can do nothing with the wandering NPCs - I think they are just there for flavor)Random events and side quests abound, and really make the setting come alive. I cant wait for it to be finished and fullly functional, with all content added (There are still some missing side quests).

So I future-recommend it for any oldschool RPG fan, with the caveat "Even though its not listed as Early Access, it is. Don't get it now, wait for the completed gold edition. If you don't, there will be bugs. *Most*are not game breaking *knocks on wood*, but they are there.

I also have to recommend it just because of how open and honest the devs have been, unlike so many who drop broken as hell games on Steam and then disappear while laughing all the way to the bank.

NOTE: This review is very old! (July 2013) I will revisit the game when I find the time, I will then update this review.

Please do not buy this game! It is clearly unfinished. I had 2 complete gamecrashs in only 15 Minutes of gameplay. Even on my system the framerate drops below 30 fps when outside. Another great reboot-idea horribly executed. I will give them another chance and check back in a few weeks. Until then they have time to fix things. Clearly not a finished game, feels rather like a steam early access game and should be marked as such.

This game isnt what it seems to be. Its not a professional, modern remake of an old school classic. Its an amatuer, buggy, sleepfest game that looks like it should have come out in 2002. The interface is clunky an annoying, combat is boring, and towns are all identical messes. I had a hard time staying awake for the little I actually played. The narrator sounds like some random person they hired that has no voice acting experience at all. And thats when the game isnt "getting stuck" on you. It doesnt crash, it just reaches points in the game where you cant do anything.

This game is just soooo bad. I will be trying to get a refund even though it got it for only 5 bucks. There are professional AAA games, there are indie games, there are cheap games, and then there are strange high school programming projects like this that shouldnt ever make it to market.

I had hopes this was going to be a good game.......but its not a good game!! it was a struggle and a pain. Bad graphics, glitchy, unresponsive controls.....and the narrator was the worst... and its too bad because this was a great idea for a game, but this is unplayable for me.

The famous old RPG remaked. The complexity of the ruleset, which shows off by using attributes non combat related and of course the lovely turn based fights, which consumed the most time and were really thrilling. In fact this remake could not provide a stable release (even after more than half a year), and the combats?: no attack of opportunity no fatigue calculation for the NPC, no flair, no fun. (in the last release a sound for arrows has been added?!)A pity!

Still buggy, poor voice over, bad combat gameplay, sarcasm from the developer in the games forums if you do not agree with the his (their) choices or decisions. I supported this game from the start even though it was a disaster, but no more. They have lost me as with so many others. Buy if on sale for $5 otherwise stayway.

At this time I do not recommend this game.It has potential maybe if it ever becomes stable.Played many hours of new games/updates and each and every timeI get a hard crash. I consider it unplayable.I use Intel HD Graphics. Makes no differencewhich graphics mode is used.I truley feel ripped with this particular game.I am a long time gamer and can tell you for an RPGit is the most aggravating game I ever played becauseof its unstable nature and all the updates probably topsome record in history.